Sad to say, at this point, I'm not sure. I will call to verify but I thought the full poop analysis checked for it. Thanks for the reminder of the simple things. Sometimes they can be forgotten in the confusion.

One other thing the vet we took Austin to recommended are probiotics, have you tried that yet? She sent us home with some of that Purina stuff, Fortiflora I think it was. We've always given them some yogurt with their dinner, but she thought the probiotic stuff might help more. Just thought I'd mention it in case you haven't already tried it.

Have you considered doing a raw diet? Or adding bone meal/ raw bone to the diet may help. Whenever Vi has loose stools I give her a raw meaty bone for dinner and it clears up. I know it's not the same as what you are dealing with, but I'm just throwing out suggestions.

Another thought would be to add fiber (capsules or something similar) to the diet. It does help firm stools up.

Probiotics can help too, and they couldn't hurt (unless allergic to something in them).

So in between we took blood for mal-digestion; this was the one time that my Capone-freak-mom-ness paid off. Because I've been paranoid that his behavior oddness is associated to his Thyroid, he's got a good yearly baseline for bloodwork. That and I'm scared poopless of heartworm. So my poop, pee and blood sampling for him have paid off.

I remember a post from MissKiwi where she said that bloodwork is not a $ maker but an insight into the dog's health. (REMEMBER THIS PEOPLE!) In my case, soooo true.

Long story short, the test for mal-digestion proved nothing right now at least. We'll wait until it does. Even the vet thought he would have bigger problems. We were fearful of SIBO or EPI. To quote a post to a friend, "damn, I JUST got a call from the vet. He too said "I thought he had EPI too" but all his levels are in the normal range. So he thinks it is just IBS and his issues. Now I think we're chasing ghosts. One of his levels were a bit elevated by only 3 points, everything else normal, which means it could be pancreatitis but the rest of the numbers don't fit. -*then came a bit of explatives to my friend from frustration*- So he's healthy. Meanwhile I felt like he's wasting away.

So after this blood visit, he was prescribed Tylan powder 1tsp followed 1 week later 1/2 tsp dailyI decided to go the route of Hill's iD food low fat solid & wet. This way my vet knows what the food 'does' and how it should 'work' in his crazy f-d system. I don't want him to be on it forever, but for baseline, I'm ok with it.

This last week, I kept the vet updated more than usual. After all I'm tired of the center of my thoughts being Capone's poop. We've switched up things. Even my uber experienced vet consulted 2 other vets in the practice. Now we're doing:Cipro 2 per dayPanacure 3 day treatment & repeat in a few weeks1/2 tsp of Tylan 1 a day

He is doing well on the food and meds, interestingly even for him this has never been a problem. No stomach upset and I think he gained a pound. I keep waiting for worms or rice things to come shooting out of keester but nothing so far. His poop is still soft serve and the color is not good. The horrific smell comes and goes. Today it was not too bad but tomorrow, who knows.

...and thus the poop story continues. More soft serve to come. Until then...

I came across a note tonight I made when I was going through everyone's posts. (and again... THANK YOU for all your ideas and experiences) I figured it might be a good idea to at least list the plethora of ideas you mentioned and just in case I forgot one, you could remind me to quit ignoring your idea and pay attention to what you wrote

Wow. I just went through four pages of poop... Haha but wow was it informative and I really hope you figure out your poop situation soon. I really think it's great you take such serious consideration into your dogs health. So many people dont even pay that much attention to their dogs poop, but it proves your a devoted owner and you care about your dogs health/happiness. I feel lucky, since Bubba's poop has been very healthy, even with having parvo at 9 weeks old. Hes on normal blue buffalo kibble and his poop is nice and firm with good coloring and not so bad smell. The only thing that seems to really upset his stomach is when he gets a hold of a frog... Damn frogs are so easy to catch and eat and his stomach almost explodes from them. It passes on but I learned a lot on what I can do to help him when he gets a hold of a frog.. Thankfully, its been a while since the last one.

I'm sorry I have no advice, just a mouth that can't seem to stop rambling...

Just as an update to the report, we're now complete with Panacure & Cipro.Continuing with the id food, Tylan, and now adding Prednisone. 10mg the first day 5mg each day after for a week at least.

Last week I screwed up and gave 1/4 tsp instead of 1/2 tsp. I'm so mad at my inability to read the measurement CLEARLY on the spoon. Doctor seems to think it more of an experiment. He was curious if things had gotten better, alas they just stayed the same, which in itself is not that bad. His 'product' is now like an elastic rope band. It keeps form if left out over night.

I'm maintaining my weekly updates with the vet. Instead of finishing the course and not updating, which was what I had done before and ultimately waiting until something got worse instead of ensuring it was perfect, I'm leaving voice mails about poop. So, that's the poop this week.

Tonight, is day 3 of prednisone and there is firm poop. Thank God it can happen!The vet is happy too!So, this tells us that the pred is helping the inflamed sections of the bowel and now that the bacterial infection is under control we are going to start tweaking the Tylan. So, each day I'll decrease the Tylan by 1/8 of a tsp. If the poop gets too soft, then we up the pred back to 10 mg and then back to 5mg the next day. Until we can get him down to a stable mg count, it will be an experiment. Then we'll start with a cheaper low fat food and hopefully get back to a grain free food.